2010/2011 – Match 38

West Bromwich Albion (h)

Date: Monday  23rd May 2011
Venue: St James’ Park
Kick-Off: 1am (AEST), 12:30am (SA), 11pm (WA)
Referee: Lee Mason
Australian TV: None

Last 5 Form:

Match Stats:
All time: Newcastle 41 wins, Draws 30, West Brom 44 wins

Odds:
Brought to you in association with…

Newcastle $2.00, Draw $3.40, WBA $3.75

Did You Know?
West Brom have never lost on the final day of a Premier League season, winning one and drawing three times. While Newcastle United have won only one of their last eight Premier League final day games.

Team News:
Newcastle will be without Jonas Gutierrez after he picked up a knock last weekend meaning his season is over along with captain Kevin Nolan, Stephen Harper, Hatem Ben Arfa, Dan Gosling, Danny Guthrie, Mike Williamson, Tamas Kadar, Haris Vuckic, and James Perch. Cheik Tiote again will not be considered because of the threat of suspension, while Alan Smith and Leon Best are now available after ankle injuries.

For West Brom manager Roy Hodgson is only without Graham Dorrans (ankle) and Pablo Ibanez (hamstring).

Match Preview

Season 2010/2011 comes to an end tonight as Newcastle United round off their campaign with a home game with West Brom Albion.

With safety sworn up early all the talk on the terraces will be about the summer rebuilding by Alan Pardew. How much of the Andy Carroll money will Pardew be given and which areas of the team & squad should be strengthened first?

Everybody will agree the one position we need to buy in is striker. The loss of Carroll in January was always going to be huge and with no replacement purchased at the time it left a big hole in the team. Peter Lovenkrands, Shola Ameobi and Leon Best have all filled the gap well at various times since without anyone of them excelling.

Another position that looks it’ll need a replacement is left-back. In midweek Pardew hinted at the difficulty in getting Jose Enrique to the table for contract talks. The Spaniard had claimed he was putting off talks until safety was guaranteed, but he now appears to have gone back on that promise.

The current amount of injuries in the first-team has given a opportunity to some of the kids to prove to Pardew that they are ready to make the step up next season.

So far 19-year-old Shane Ferguson has been the stand out with a string of impressive substitute appearances culminating in a energetic and dominate display from the start at Stamford Bridge last week. In addition Kazenga LuaLua, who is back from a lengthy loan spell at League 1 Champions Brighton Hove Albion, looks to have improved since he was last seen in a black & white during his substitute spell last week. Last week also saw the debut of Shola’s brother Sammy, and the 19-year-old Geordie certainly didn’t look overawed showing a nice first touch and a fine turn of pace down the right wing.

The loss of Jonas Gutierrez should mean a start for either LuLua or Sammy in right midfield, while if fully fit Leon Best should be given a start because you would think he has more of a future at the club than Peter Lovenkrands. Otherwise it’ll be the same team as at Chelsea and this eleven should be too strong for West Brom with the packing of a home crowd in end of season party mood.

My Starting XI:
Tim Krul
Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Fabricio Coloccini, Jose Enrique
Sammy Ameobi/Kazenga LuaLua, Joey Barton, Ryan Taylor, Shane Ferguson
Shola Ameobi, Leon Best

See you all in again August.

HOWAY THE LADS!

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army

Season 2009/20010 – Match 1

Date: Saturday 8th August 2009
Venue: Hawthorns
Kick Off: 5:30pm (BST)
Australian Live TV: Foxsports 1
Attendance: 23,502
Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral)

West Bromich Albion

Carson, Olsson, Cech, Zuiverloon, Martis, Koren (Dorrans 73), Greening, Brunt, Mulunbu, Wood (Cox 81), Moore
Subs Not Used: Kiely, Barnett, Teixeira, Beattie, Reid
Booked: None

Goals: Shelton Martis 39

Newcastle United

Harper (Krul 46), R.Taylor, Coloccini, S.Taylor, Enrique, Nolan, Smith, Duff, Gutierrez, Carroll (Barton 75), Ameobi (Ranger 90+2)
Subs Not Used: Kadar, Geremi, LuaLua, Xisco
Booked: Coloccini, Nolan

Goals: Damien Duff 55

Post Match Comments:
West Brom manager Roberto Di Matteo said:

“I’m disappointed about the result because we had plenty of chances. Their goalkeeper made some fine saves, but the performance was quite good.

We are creating chances, we are quite solid at the back as well. We were a bit late when we conceded the goal, but I thought that going forward we created enough chances to win the game.

Credit to Newcastle, you look at their team sheet and there are a lot of international players there. It wasn’t an easy game but I thought we did well.”

Newcastle caretaker manager Chris Hughton said:

“I think on the balance of chances it was a fair result.

It was certainly an entertaining, end-to-end game. I was delighted with the players’ response after going in 1-0 down at half-time.

They came out for the second-half and got the equaliser they deserved and after that we had West Brom on the back foot.

We had a couple of good chances to take the lead and on another day I think we would have left here with three points.

But let’s not forget that Tim Krul has made some outstanding saves at the other end.”

On Steve Harper’s injury:
“Steve went to hospital for precautionary checks as is normal with any head injury. I haven’t spoken fully with our medical staff yet but the early news is that he is fine.”

Match Report:
A second half Damien Duff goal earned Newcastle United a 1-1 draw against West Brom Albion in their opening game of the new season in the Coca-Cola Championship.

Newcastle started the game quite brightly trying to play some positive attacking football without creating any real goal scoring opportunities.

On 39 minutes West Brom defender Shelton Martis broke the deadlock slightly against the run of play. Martis stabbing home the ball from close range after the Newcastle defence failed to clear the set-piece. In the scramble Steve Harper was injured when he was kicked in the head by Shola Amoebi’s vain attempt to clear the ball off the line.

Harper managed to stay on the pitch for the remaining 6 minutes, but was replaced at the start of second half by young Dutch goalkeeper Tim Krul.

And it was the Dutch keeper who turned out to be the hero for the Magpies with some outstanding saves to deny West Brom. Krul reflexes were tested by strikes from Robert Koren and Luke Moore, then he saved well from Baggies substitute Graham Dorrans.

However, it was Duff who levelled matters for Newcastle when Shola found Kevin Nolan on the edge of the box, and his smart pass to Duff on the right edge of the box saw the Irish International neatly slot home the ball with a fine right footed strike.

Both sides had their chances to win the match, Nolan missing a golden opportunity when he headed wide after being found in acres of space in the box from a cross and West Brom had a goal disallowed in injury time when the linesman’s flag correctly ruled out Jonas Olsson’s header

Newcastle’s football at times was pleasing, without being too threatening, however too often a pass or a final ball would go woefully astray.  Jonas Gutierrez being the chief culprit, for all his endeavour he usually ruined it with a poor cross or by tamely falling to the ground looking for a free-kick.

A draw was probably a fair result for both sides, and with the Hawthorns likely being one of the harder away grounds to visit this season, Newcastle may feel reasonable happy with a point, but there is a lot of work to do with this team if it is going to be consistently competitive in the Championship.

Andrew McTernan – Row ‘S’ Army